Permissability of Martyrdom Operations

Verdict Regarding the

Permissibility of tlie

Martyrdom Operations

^1 ia^bJi ^Ld^

By Al-Imdm, Al-Hdfith, Ash-Shaykh
Abu 'Abdillah Sulayman Ibn Nasir Ibn 'Abdillah Al-

'Ulwan
(May Allah Release him from prison)

At-Tibyan Publications

Thul-Qi'dah, 1425 H.

The Fatwa of the ^Allamah, Concerning the Suicide Operations

Against the Jews.

"The noble Shaykh Sulayman Ibn Nasir Al-'Ulwan, may Allah, the Most High
preserve him: You know what is happening to the Palestinians at this time from the
crimes of the Jews and the humiliating Arab silence. So is there, in the suicide
operations against the Jews, any opposition from the Shari'ahT'

The Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful . . .
The pestering Jews are the gatherers of all the shameful defects and the collectors of
the aggravations and the evils and they are the harshest enemies of Allah against Al-
Isldm and its people. He, the Most High said: Verily, you will find the strongest
among men in enmity to the believers (Muslims) the Jews and those who are Al-
Mushrikun. (Al-Md'idah, 82) And Allah has made compulsory the fighting against
them and making Jihad against them so that the Word of Allah is the highest and the
word of those who disbelieve is the lowest. Yet all this is when the enemies of Allah
remain within their states and do not break their contracts and covenants and do not
seize the wealth of the Muslims and overtake their states. He, the Most High said:
Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that
which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who
acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the
Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing
submission, and feel themselves subdued. (At-Tawba, 29) But when the enemies of
Allah place their swords upon the throats of the Muslims and terrorize their young and
their elderly and overtake their states and violate their chastity, then it is obligatory
from among all the people of ability to fight them and spill their blood and make
ongoing Jihad against them until the full liberation of Palestine and all the countries
of the Muslims. And it is not allowed in the Shari'ah to surrender any of the lands of
the Muslims to the Jews or to make peace with them because they are a people of
deception and deceit and of breaking of treaties. And I see that in this time, in which
the Muslims are unable to (fully) fight the Jews and destroy them and expel them
from the Holy Land, that the best treatment and the greatest medicine that we apply to
the brothers of the monkeys and the pigs (i.e. the Jews) is that we perform the suicide
operations and put forward our souls as a ransom for motivation of Imdn and for
praiseworthy goals from planting the fear in the hearts those who disbelieve and
inflicting harm upon their bodies and losses in their wealth. And the evidences
concerning the suicide operations are many and I have mentioned elsewhere some
ten-odd proofs and I've listed their fruits and benefits of performing them. He, the
Most High said: And of mankind is he who would sell himself, seeking the
Pleasure of Allah. And Allah is full of Kindness to (His) slaves. (Al-Baqarah, 207)
And from the narrations of the Sahabah and the Imams of those who witnessed them,
concerning the meaning of this verse is a strong evidence concerning that the one who
sells himself to Allah and plunges into the ranks of the enemy headlong, without
retreating, even if he is certain that they will kill him, that he is aMuh 'sin (i.e. sincere
in his devotion) in that and that he receives the rewards from him Lord with the
patient ones and the hopeful martyrs. And in ''Sahih Muslim", #3,005 from the path of
Hammad Ibn Salamah, "Thabit Al-BananT narrated to us from Abdur-Rahman Ibn AbT
Layla from Suhayb from the Prophet, peace by upon him, in the story of the Sorcerer

and the Monk and the Boy. This Hadlth; and in it the monotheist boy proclaimed to
the Kafir King, "...you will not be able to kill me until you do what I order you to
do.' He said, 'And what is that?' He said, 'You join all the people on an upland plain
and crucify me upon a tree trunk. Then take an arrow from my quiver and place the
arrow in the bow and then say, 'In the Name of Allah, the Lord of the boy,' and then
shoot me. And verily, if you do that, you will kill me. So he joined all the people on
an upland plain and crucified him to a tree trunk and then he took an arrow from his
quiver. The he placed it in the bow and said, 'In the Name of Allah, the Lord of the
boy,' and then he shot him and the arrow entered the temporal region of his skull. So
the boy put his hand over the temporal region of his skull and then he died. So the
people said: " We have believed in the Lord of the boy, we have believed in the Lord
of the boy, we have believed in the Lord of the boy!" So the king was approached and
it was said to him: " You know what you were afraid of? I swear by Allah that that
which you were afraid of has fallen upon you. The people have believed." So he
ordered for trenches to be dug out of the mouths of paths. So the fires were lit and he
said, 'Whoever does not turn back from their religion (i.e. Islam), I will throw him in
it or he will be commanded, 'Jump in it!' So they did that until a woman came and
she had with her an infant boy and she was afraid for him to enter it. So the boy said
to her, 'O mother, be patient because verily, you are upon the truth!" So in this, there
is evidence for the correctness for these suicide operations that the Mujahidun in the
Path of Allah perform; those who are waging war against the Jews and the Christians
and those who make mischief in the Earth. This is because, the boy instructed the
King the means with which to kill him when the King was unable to do that after
trying unsuccessfully and seeking the help of the soldiers and aids. So this action of
the boy; within it there is the method of the killing of himself and (the one who
instructs how to kill is the) partner in that. His judgement is the same judgement as
the one who killed him. And the goal of these two matters (i.e. the story of the boy
and the infant boy commanding his mother to jump into the fire) is making the truth
apparent and supporting it, and (evidence for) inflicting harm against the Jews and the
Christians and the Pagans and their supporters and weakening their strengths and
planting fear in their selves. And the benefit rules (in favour) of the slaughtering of
the Muslims and t\\Q Mujahidin with one of their own men or some of their men in the
path of harming the disbelievers and terrorizing them and weakening their strengths.
He, the Most High said: And make ready against them all you can of power,
including steeds of war (tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, etc.) to terrorize with it
the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides whom, you may not
know but whom Allah does know. (Al-Anfal, 60) And most of the people of
knowledge had permitted for the Muslim to plunge himself headlong into the ranks of
the disbelievers even if he is certain that they will kill him. And the evidences for this
are many and most of the scholars made permissible the killing of the Muslim
prisoners if the disbelieving enemy takes them as shields and if the evil of the
disbelievers and their harm can not be prevented except by killing the Muslim
prisoners , then the killer is a Mujdhid and receives the rewards and the killed
(prisoner) is a martyr. And Allah knows best.

Your brother,

Sulayman Ibn Nasir Al-'Ulwan

Buraydah, Al-QasTm

10/07/1421